Farm team baseball is not organic

by Denny Banister

The recent Major League Baseball All-Star Game offered something new this year. For the first time in the history of the mid-season spectacle, organic concessions were available. It is difficult to imagine your typical baseball fan concerned if his ‘red-hot’ was produced organically, but then again, those attending high-profile sporting events like the All-Star Game are not your typical fans.

The average baseball fan can only dream about attending events like the All-Star Game, the American and National League Pennant Series or the World Series – tickets to such events seem to be reserved for those with fame, influence and money. Many who attend these games do so because they can – they are not there to see the game as much as they are there to be seen at the game. Being at major events is trendy, and since organic foods are a growing trend, an organic food concession made its first appearance at the All-Star Game.

This is not to take anything away from organic foods, quite the contrary. Many farmers in the United States are producing organically as a way to add value to what they generate on their farms and ranches. A growing number of Americans have enough disposable income to spend more for their food, and if they are willing to spend more for organic, farmers will happily oblige. Those attending the All-Star Game certainly have the disposable income to buy the concession cart offering of organic Polish sausages, hamburgers, buns, catsup and mustard.

My wife and I shared dinner recently with a young couple, both lawyers, who mentioned they were not really baseball fans, but were going to buy season tickets anyway to go along with their season tickets for football and basketball. Why? Because that is the only way to ensure tickets will be available if there was a particularly important game they felt like attending. They were very nice people, but I resented these non-baseball fans could go to games they considered an event, making it increasingly difficult for real fans to get tickets at all.

As a typical baseball fan, I cannot afford to buy tickets to the All-Star Game, not even if I decided to forgo my next few house payments. In fact, I find regular season games to see my favorite major league team play at their home stadium too costly to justify more than occasional attendance. Sour grapes? You bet!

There is something trendy in baseball for average fans, however. Because of the popularity of baseball and the increased cost of attending major league games, independent and minor league parks are springing up in rural areas of the country where true fans can watch the farm teams play. It is good baseball, a lot of fun and much more affordable – but farm team baseball is not organic. Unlike the All-Star Game, you will not find a concessionaire roaming the bleachers yelling, “Obtain your trendy, certified organically grown cuisine here.”

(Denny Banister, of Jefferson City, Mo., is assistant director of public affairs for the Missouri Farm Bureau, the state’s largest farm organization.)